John Pomfret
Rev. John Pomfret (1667-1702) was an English poet and clergyman. Life Pomfret, son of a clergyman, also entered the Church. He wrote several rather dull poems, of which the only 1 remembered, though now never read, is "The Choice," which celebrates a country life free from care, and was highly popular in its day.John William Cousin, "Pomfret, John," A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature. London: Dent / New York: Dutton, 1910, 304. Wikisource, Web, Feb. 20, 2018. Family Pomfret was the son of Thomas Pomfret, vicar of Luton, who married, at St. Mary's, Savoy, Middlesex, on 27 Nov. 1661, Catherine, daughter of William Dobson of Holborn (Harl. Soc. Publ. 1887, xxvi. 287). The father graduated M.A. from Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1661, became chaplain to Robert Bruce (2nd earl of Elgin and 1st earl of Ailesbury), and is probably identical with the Thomas Pomfret, author of the Life of Lady Christian, Dowager Countess of Devonshire (privately printed 1685).Seccombe, 74. Youth John Pomfret was born at Luton, Bedfordshire, in 1667. He was educated at Bedford grammar school and at Queens' College, Cambridge, earning a B.A. in 1684 and an M.A. in 1688. Career Pomfret married at Luton, on 13 September 1692, Elizabeth (Wingate), by whom he had one surviving son, also John Pomfret, baptised at Maulden on 21 August 1702, who became rouge croix pursuivant of arms in July 1725. He took orders upon leaving Cambridge, and, having influential connections, he was instituted to the rectory of Maulden in Bedfordshire on 12 December 1695, and to the rectory of Millbrook in the same county on 2 June 1702. He dabbled in verse at least as early as 1694, when he wrote an elegy upon the death of Queen Mary. This was published in 1699, with other pieces in heroic verse, remarkable chiefly for their correctness, under the title of Poems on Several Occasions. One of the longer poems, called "Cruelty and Lust," commemorates an act of barbarity said to have been perpetrated by Colonel Kirke during the western rebellion. Pomfret's treatment of the situation is prosaically tame. The sale of these miscellany poems was greatly stimulated by Pomfret's publication in 1700 of his chief title to remembrance, The Choice: A poem written by a person of quality (London, fol.), which won instant fame, 4 quarto editions appearing during 1701. In the meantime Pomfret issued A Prospect of Death: An ode (1700, fol.), and Reason: A poem (1700, fol.). A 2nd edition of his poems, including "The Choice," appeared in 1702 as Miscellany Poems on Several Occasions; by the author of “The Choice.” A 3rd edition was issued in 1710; the 10th appeared in 1736, 12mo, and the last separate edition in 1790, 24mo. When the scheme for the Lives of the Poets was submitted by the booksellers to Dr. Johnson, the name of Pomfret (together with 3 others) was added by his advice. Pomfret was buried at Maulden on 1 December 1702 (Genealogia Bedfordiensis, ed. Blaydes, p. 414). Writing Samuel Johnson remarks that "perhaps no poem in our language has been so often perused" as 'The Choice.' It is an admirable exposition in neatly turned verse of the everyday epicureanism of a cultivated man. Pomfret is said to have drawn some hints from a study of the character of Sir William Temple (cf. Gentleman's Magazine, Mag. 1757, 489). The poet's frankly expressed aspiration to "have no wife" displeased the bishop of London (Compton), to whom he had been recommended for preferment. Despite the fact that Pomfret was married, the bishop's suspicions were not dispelled before the poet's death. (At the end of the 4th edition of ‘The Choice’ (1701) is advertised A Poem in Answer to the Choice that would have no wife.) Pomfret's poems were printed in Johnson's English Poets (1779, vol. xxi.), Chalmers's Poets’(1810, vol. viii.), Park's British Poets (1808, supplement, vol. i.), Roach's Beauties of the Poets (1794, vol. ii.), and Pratt's Cabinet of Poetry (1808, vol. ii.) The exclusion of Pomfret from more recent literary manuals and anthologies sufficiently indicates that Johnson's strange verdict finds few supporters at the present day. Recognition Samuel Johnson included Pomfret in his Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets. "The Choice" was chosen by Roger Lonsdale as the opening poem in The New Oxford Book of Eighteenth Century Verse.* Publications *''Poems upon Several Occasions. 1699; 2nd edition (as ''Miscellany Poems on Several Occasions), London: Edward Place, 1707; 3rd edition, London: Edward Place, 1710; 7th edition, London: D. Brown, J. Walthoe, A. Bettesworth, E. Taylor, & J. Hooke, 1724; 10th edition, London: Ed. Cook, 1736. *''The Choice: A poem'' (by "a person of quality"). London: J. Nutt, 1701. *''Remains of the Rev. Pomfret''. London: 1731; 4th edition, London: 1736. *''The Poetical Works; with the life of the author''. Edinburgh: Apollo Press, by the Martins, 1779; London: C. Cooke (Cooke's edition), 1797. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:John Pomfret, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Feb. 20, 2016. Poems by John Pomfret #The Choice See also *List of British poets References *Richard L. Greaves, ‘Pomfret, John (1667–1702)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004, accessed 1 Feb 2009 * . Wikisource, Web, Feb. 20, 2016. Notes External links ;Books* ;About *John Pomfret in the Cambridge History of English and American Literature *"A Study of John Pomfret's "The Choice": The sources, the appreciation, the art, and the influence of the most popular poems during the eighteenth century" * Pomfret, John Category:1667 births Category:1702 deaths Category:Alumni of Queens' College, Cambridge Category:Deaths from smallpox Category:Infectious disease deaths in England Category:People educated at Bedford School